Marketing

What’s Amazon and iTunes up to? And what it means to marketing.

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

While Google is clearly moving into Microsoft territory with an Office replacement, the Amazon Vs Apple competition is equally worth watching.

All these ‘publishers’ are on a collision course. This MSNBC story highlights the Amazon move. There could be unexpected communications windfalls for independant musicians, podcasters and anyone who has been trying to pierce Big media.

The two billionaires, Apple and Amazon, are all pumped up. The former has sold one billion downloads on iTunes, and the latter just reported $1 billion in quarterly sales. Amazon’s Fishbowl, which began earlier this year is one step into Apple’s territory.  Will Apple reciprocate with, say, a business around downloadable books? Like I mentioned before, everyone’s a publisher. Of course, with iTunes, anything is possible. I recently downloaded 5 chapters of ‘The Future of Music’ via iTunes. The book is all about why content providers and musicians must embrace non-linear media, so marketing it via iTunes is a great way to demonstrate the power of these new publishers.

Sidebar: Found on Amazon:
Apple, The inside story of Intrigue, Egomania and Business Blunders.

:–)

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Why change is to be expected, not resisted

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Having said that, advertising in the mainstream media isn’t entirely broke. Dwindling, maybe. But let’s be honest, we still (at least I do) pick up useful information about concerts, movies, sales, store openiings etc in newspapers. I never zap past a Geico or Aflac ad on TV (though I will a Godaddy un-commercial.)

But here’s another interesting take by Cory Treffiletti in Online Spin.

He was writing about responding to an audience question (at New Communications Forum) about what to do when a client does not want to venture into new media –because the old media still works. His response: write a case study about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, which survived for a loooong time… More seriously:

When your company is prospering, and things are looking great, is the BEST time to test out new ideas, because you have the wiggle room and you’ve been awarded the respect and trust to take risks. When you’re driving successful results, you should always be testing something new for further down the road because, inevitably, things are going to change.

I like that. Things are going to change. Big Music, for a long time didn’t want to ackknowlege that P2P was going to be the way people find music, lawsuits or not. They were in a hissy fit when Apple used the line "rip, mic, burn" but look how this Roman Empire, while still suing, has quietly adopted some of the Apple philosophy –if not follow in iTunes footsteps.

Big Journalism is rife with examples. San Francisco Chronicle , NYT etc are podcasting because they don’t want to be the last ones left to turn the lights off in the colleseum. Shel Israel has a good explanation here of how newspapers are also blending journalism and blogging. Things are changing, whether we embrace it or not. And let’s not forget, even bloggers need to recognize that this model too, will change, or be overtaken by something different or more improved.

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Old media feels the heat

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

I don’t want to bash old media. I don’t think I will ever give up reading newspapers in print, or subscribing to a magazine that is delivered to my doorstep. But i also work in the digital marketing industry, and know the heat is on the old media.

This piece in RedHerring, cites some awsome examples, of how revenue from the new media division of KnightRidder was 54.5% vs 3.1% from the regular version. The attacks are coming from all directions, as I noted before. Even Advertising Age, a print pub, is anything but. As my favorite columnist Scott Donation notes in this Ad Age piece (free, registration required) A New Media Story of Rocks and Revolution:

"Ad Age is no longer a weekly publication; it’s the world’s leading source of news, information and data on advertising, marketing and media. And it’s delivered through whatever platforms make the most sense for our audience and advertisers. It’s why we run a real-time news operation online.."

Elsewhere, everyone’s a publisher. Of the top 3 brands in the U.S., Apple, Google, and Starbucks, 2 of them are publishers in the digital era. Even Starbucks is in the toe-in-the-water stage, with music and movies.

Then there’s Glen Reynold’s book, An Army of Davids, that purportedly spells out the transformation of Big media. Must buy it!

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Advertising subsidized media works? Duh!

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

The survey of iPod users, cited in an Advertising Age MediaWorks newsletter, shows that people who download or are planning to download Tv programs from iTunes for $1.99 a pop, would view an ad –if the advertiser paid for the download.

This brings an interesting idea to play, one that has always been contentious: Advertising is not such a bad thing, in the right circumstance. People do understand that content is subsidized by advertisers. Of course, in the old mass marketing model, people would do anything to sidestep advertising because the ads were not exactly targeted.

But with channels like iTunes, and dozens of other ways for people to select their own information or entertainment (HBO, for instance is selling segments of The Sopranos, and MTV plans to sell VHI, MTV, and Comedy Central programs optimized for viewing on mobile phones) the problem of ‘bombardment’ is going away.

The study cited, only talks of the findings in terms of attitudes toward iTunes. But as more video-capable mobile devices and phones show up this year, it will open a window for all marketers to bond with content providers. Consumers will rush to the digital faucets for paid and free content. There will soon be many ways to make advertising make much of what flows through them seem like free.

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Podcasting picks up –sloooowly

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How widespread is podcasting? It’s still a fringe media activity, because companies are still givibg it the blog treatment –waiting to see if it will be a passing fad.

MediaPost, an advertising and media portal reported in its January 06 conference how Whirlpool found podcasting to be a valuable part of its marketing mix.  (Check the number of podcasts Whirlpool has available for download on its site.)

MediaPost puts things in perspective, noting that back in 2002, interactive and online advertising was not on the radar of most big name advertisers who "had to be coaxed, bribed, guaranteed, shamed, tricked and otherwise coerced into rediscovering the Internet."

Podcasting may prove itself faster, without the shaming and bribing.

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GoDaddy’s soap opera: where’s the Big Idea?

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

By now the GoDaddy Super Bowl commercial has probably run out of steam, and one wonders what all the fuss was about –by GoDaddy, not ABC. Meaning, why would a company go to such lengths to defend such a lame commercial? If the whole ‘malfunction‘ issue is the only idea, then it is not only out of date, but irrelevant. This could very well have been a Super Bowl beer commercial from a time when agencies and clients didn’t know better. (Anyone remember the ‘Swedish Bikini Team’ and the Miller Light’s ‘Catfight’ commercial?)

But Bob Parsons supposedly knows better, judging from the media statements and blog that insist this unnecessary controversy has garnered the company more advertising than the the ads could have achieved. If anything, the strategy to get people to come to the web site to watch the banned versions of the dumb commercial, may pay off. It’s a domain registrar, after all. But GoDaddy wants to be remembered as a company who is pusing the buttons. See how someone has cleverly included the window-washer girl in this Wikipedia entry which obviously has been updated today!

I can hardly fault GoDaddy for the poor taste in the commercial. This is, after all the product of an advertising agency, who ought to know better –about branding. As a marketer, where is GoDaddy really going with this? If you have the moolah to splurge, there is a more responsible way to build your brand than spend it on old story line about a broken strap that is irrelevant to your product offering, anyway.

Speaking about storylines, take the FedEx commercial, ‘stick’ which was both entertaining, and still focused on what the brand stands for.  The caveman tries to air-ship a stick using a pterodactyl, but the courier is snapped up by a dinasaur, mid flight. The caveman’s boss fires him, and he protests that he could not have used FeDex since it does not exist. "That’s not my problem," replies his boss. The poor fellow sulks outside his cave only to be squashed by a massive foot of an anonymous beast. The message: use FeDex (even if it does not exist in your cave) or else…

Ironic, isn’t it how the window washer seems to have predated the caveman? 

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Branding: The need to simplify

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Arrogant Branding often involves reducing a company’s core beliefs (or offerings) to a very simple idea. But it’s surprising how many companies don’t get it. I often sit with people trying to elicit this and the first try brings out buzzwords and industrial language. Why do people speak (think) like this?

An article by Wharton professor Eric Clemons puts it this way. Complexity is like pollution –it builds over time. He is speaking about complexity in organizations, not language, per se. But it is connected. Multi-channel companies who compete in categories that are blurring so fast, bring out Swiss army-kinfe-like offerings that tend to retain the language of these complex processes. Some mission statements are great examples of how not to use language.

But complexity can be countered –only if it is recognized. Take this example by Arizona State University. They recognize that they need a brand language that incorporates the new direction and focus of ASU.

58,000 voices, 4 campuses, 19 colleges, countless institutes, committees and programs, and at least 20 seperate in-house design departments creates a cacophony of interpretations of the ASU brand.  Excerpted from this page.

So, they actually have a page on Brand Language!

Sometimes the language can be reduced to a quirky, but memorable use of the company name. The British case of 118-118 for a directory inquiries company is one. One of my favorites, is Arrogant Bastard, the beer. Another is iLife –the Apple tool that integrates music, movies, photographs, blogs and podcasts.

As for Mission Statements, I randomly picked this from an organization that will remain unnamed:

The primary mission of the (name withheld) Society is to gather and disseminate honest, accurate, reliable data about (category withheld) and related types of (activity withheld) to it’s Membership, and to enhance the pleasure and passion of the sport through forming a collegial network that facilitates communication, socialization and recreation.

If you think this is wordy, here is a 15-paragraph Mission Statemement (!) from the Pain Relief Network that is really an ‘about us’ piece. The real Mission is buried in paragraph 11.

Final point: Not every outfit needs a mission statement written in the arcane style of mission statements. The Tortise and the Hare a small specialty running store has a MS that ought to shame many big corporations. Just 7 words!

"To bring out the athlete in everyone."

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Lesser know Google search trick

/ Angelo Fernando / 2 Comments

Why waste money on 411 directory inquiries? If you have an sms plan on your cell phone, you have a powerful search tool in your hands. It’s especially handy when looking for a street address or phone number of a business –while driving.

Simply type in the business name and zip code or city as a text message (for example, pizza Scottsdale az) and send it to 46645 (the Google sms address that’s the numeric equivalent of GOOGL)

I was at Best Buy a few days back and wanted a price check of the Creative Zen Nano. I typed in "F price creative zen nano" in the message area and sent it off to 46645. Before I could cross the aisle, the phone beeped with a text message giving me the price. In case you’re wondering the prefix "F" routs the Google search through Froogle.

It gets better. Looking for the meaning of an obscure word? Type in the word, followed by "definition." Once you master this, you can search for movie times, driving directions etc!

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